Using a Bushmaster for hunting is not a sport

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As a former combat soldier and retired attorney, I support Americans’ right to keep and bear arms.

That much said, current gun adherents misrepresent the facts when they disingenuously claim the Bushmaster or AR-15 – the current weapon du jour — is not a military weapon. The Bushmaster is the commercial version of the military CAR-15, the only significant difference being that the latter allows automatic and semi-automatic fire. But that difference is meaningless.

I carried a CAR-15 in combat in Vietnam and had to use it in several firefights. Not once did I select automatic fire. Any infantryman will tell you how difficult it is to put effective fire on a target with an individual weapon in automatic mode.

It is difficult to control and sprays rounds ineffectively. At best, it simply suppresses enemy fire while rarely hitting a specific target.

The Bushmaster is not a sporting rifle. Its is use in hunting is not sporting. Nor is shooting an animal with rounds designed to inflict massive tissue injury sporting.

There is little left but tissue spread across the landscape. Meanwhile, multiple round magazines serve no sporting purpose other than giving mediocre shooters multiple chances to kill a defenseless animal.